UPDATED 12/21/01—With its arduous R&D efforts and its innovative technology, once again, the converting industry is stepping front and center to face a national crisis. Fortunately, the anthrax-in-the-mail problem has waned, but the industry still is investigating ways to protect our mail and our nation's life-sustaining food supply.

The converting industry continues to make significant strides toward making life safer; a prompt reaction to the recent anthrax problem and the potential of an attack that could use bio-agents to contaminate the US food supply. Security is something we're all paying a bit more attention to these days...

Though Halloween is almost a month behind us, we in the US still are getting our share of "scares." Anthrax carries on its grisly spectacle, and despite a drop in newly reported anthrax cases over the last few weeks, terrorism, especially bio-terrorism, continues to weigh heavily on our collective conscious.

Pactiv Corp. announced today the sale of its single-faced corrugated Netherland-based business to Palm Industrie Beteiligungs GmbH Co. KG. The single-faced corrugated business had sales of approximately $20 million in 2000, and, reports the co., the sale of this business is another step in the restructuring of its protective and flexible packaging segment that was announced in January 2001.

Creo Products Inc. will consolidate all of the company's activities and businesses under one brand name and logo, the company announced today. According to the Canadian-based manufacturer, beginning January 2002, it will phase out the name "CreoScitex," and the Creo logo will be updated.

America's packaging printers want their ink to perform on press as well or better than advertised. That's the key finding of a recent survey distributed among 2,000 printers by the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM).

The Envelope Manufacturers Association and the EMA Foundation for Paper-Based Communications recently released The Emergence of the Post-Millennium Envelope Manufacturing Industry. According to the trade groups, the report suggests the envelope-making industry is about to undergo a dramatic change...

BASF recently announced its North American Printing Systems group has formed an alliance with Heidelberg Canada Graphic Equipment Ltd. The agreement enables Heidelberg to distribute BASF's line of K+E Printing Inks in Canada.

Enercon Industries Corp. reports its surface-treating products can be purchased in Canada through Canflexographics, Brampton, Ontario. According to the co., Canflexographics now is Enercon's exclusive Canadian sales representative, providing sales and service support for Enercon's full line of narrow and wide web surface-treatment systems.

From ongoing attacks on Afghanistan to Anthrax in the US to civil unrest in Pakiston to the turbulent turns of the stock market, since September 11th, world affairs continue to keep global citizens teetering between a sense of well-being and panic. But many companies (from across the globe) are contributing to a sense of stability by donating their efforts...

Custom-built and nonwovens machinery are just two more things that customers now can get from Paper Converting Machine Co. The Green Bay, WI-based converting equipment supplier says it has formed two new groups within its Special Products Division: the Custom Machine-Building Group and the Nonwovens Group.

Amcor Flexibles Europe says its pleased with Davis-Standard's ProPak die technology. According to Davis-Standard, after extensive research of available technologies worldwide, Amcor selected its ProPak system and installed the die technology in late 2000.